Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) Notice 8260.67 establishes guidance for Performance-Based Navigation (PBN) Instrument Flight Procedure (IFP) validation. In particular, FAA Notice 8260.67 supplements FAA Order 8200.1 by adding a flight validation (FV) requirement to be performed prior to procedure implementation. FV includes an airborne and a ground assessment phase. The ground assessment includes an obstacle assessment which may be completed from the ground or from an aircraft. This assessment is required to accurately assess existing, new or inaccurate obstacles identified during obstacle assessment, as well as a flight validation phase.
Ground obstacle surveying is traditionally performed by specialized surveying companies in accordance with existing FAA regulations. The expense and time required for such surveys hinders their feasibility for the obstacle assessment phase of FV.
Accordingly, alternative, low-cost obstacle assessment/surveying approaches are needed.